Diary~♥

Loving the giver vs loving the gifts

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 |10:45 AM

Just last sunday, my pastor preached a sermon and prayer and fasting but what made me really reflect on the sermon is this that was spoken:

"When we prayer, are we really enjoying the company of God or is it just because we want God to give us things?'

The above question struck me because i feel that very often many christians (me included at times) treat God as a wishing well, 财神爷 and the list just goes on and on. More often, we always ask God to keep blessing us in this and that and we always want it our way. In times like these, i guess many of us have heard countless sermons on how God will bless us (which i agree God will bless us) but i guess it fails emphasise on the more important thing -> Are we really enjoying the company (presence) of God? Even if God doesn't gives us the things we want, are we able to still enjoy the company of God?

This led me to 1 analogy. (i ain't someone very good with analogies but just that it made me think of something).

Early this month i celebrated my 28th birthday and received loads of gifts and had lots of treats from loved ones. In fact i openly or some people termed it was shamelessly blog down what i wanted. I am thankful for the gifts, meals, smses and emails. But if my loved ones didn't give me all these gifts, the question is would i still love them? What if it was just well wishes or just a meal and their company without all the gifts, would i still love them? The answer is Yes. I will. What more if it is God? I guess the gifts to me are just like bonuses.

The question of whether we are loving the giver or gifts brought me to think of a shepherding session i had sometime last month. It was a simple one whereby my shepherd mentioned 2 verses from the bible one of which is this:

Mark 12:30

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

She mentioned that how often do we have this "longing" in our soul (inner man) for God? How often do we longed to be in His presence? I guess many christians (myself included) have many times missed the whole point. We are often too busy with doing God's work (ministry, meetings etc) but we forgot that God would really want us to slow ourselves down and devote more time into being in His presence. :)